


Windows

by exbex



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Light Angst, M/M, Romantic Fluff, Romantic Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-09
Updated: 2016-07-09
Packaged: 2018-07-22 12:00:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7437937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exbex/pseuds/exbex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, in jumping on the soulmates AU bandwagon, I envisioned a universe in which everyone's eyes appear grey, and you and your soulmate notice one another's eye color at the same time. It could be months or years after you've met, or moments, it could be after a long friendship, a difficult relationship, or anything in between.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Jack/Bitty

**Author's Note:**

> Check Please! belongs to Ngozi Ukazu

Later, Eric wouldn’t remember what finally set him off, or why he lost his temper the way he did. Possibly it had been a long week, possibly Jack had yelled at him one too many times in practice that morning, but Eric had finally had enough.

“I don’t know why you have it out for me Jack Zimmermann, but I don’t deserve to be treated like garbage. Will you look at me when I’m talking to you?”

When Jack looked up, the anger in his eyes turned abruptly to fear, a shift that Eric missed because of his own shock at the way that the silvery grey had turned, in a blink, to a startling blue.

Jack bolted and Eric fell to the floor.

**

Jack didn’t show up to checking practice the next morning. Eric sighed, too spent to cry, and started to put his gear away, resigned.

He looked at his skates in his hands and sat down, pulling them on and lacing them up.

He started with figure eights, slow and careful, precise, just as he’d been taught so many years ago. As he gained more confidence, he tried spins and spirals, footwork from half-remembered routines, his grace only interrupted by a rather undignified yelp when he turned and saw those ridiculous blue eyes.

Something was off, and it took Eric a moment to realize that it was because Jack was standing on the ice without skates.

Jack’s tongue darted between his lips, his face frozen in his nervousness, and Eric took a closer look at his eyes, and finally noticed the fear there, and the sorrow.

“What if I don’t deserve you?” came the question, barely above a whisper. “What if I can’t be good enough?”

“This boy,” Eric huffed, and leaned in to kiss his soulmate.


	2. Alexei/Kent

Alexei had largely dismissed the idea of having a soulmate, even though, every time it crossed his mind, he could see his mother’s disapproving look and hear her lecture, reminding him that he wasn’t even thirty years old yet. 

But Alexei believed strongly in maintaining perspective. And he knew he had so far lived a charmed life, and he also knew that pining was not any way to appreciate that life. So he allowed himself to feel sad every now and then, but he didn’t let it change the way he lived. So when he would meet someone that initially made his heart race, someone like Jack Zimmermann, and discover that they already had a soulmate, well, he would be happy for his new friends. And when he would become close to his friends who hadn’t met their soulmates, but their eyes remained that silvery grey color, he refused to let it keep him up at night. He knew there were plenty of people who felt perfectly fulfilled without soulmates. He could be one of those people, even if it took him a long time to get to a place where he was well and truly okay with it.

It wasn’t the first time he’d checked Kent Parson against the boards, not the first time he had gotten very close to him, and Alexei’s focus was on the game at hand, and there were visors in their way, and it was likely a trick of the lighting, and Alexei was so convinced that he didn’t have a soulmate, that when Parson’s eyes seemed to turn to a blue-green combination, Alexei dismissed it outright, and skated away before he could catch Parson’s startled look.

It was a tough loss, and everyone was tired from the roadie, so Alexei was engrossed in his usual role of trying to be the one to cheer everyone up without being obnoxious about it, that he was completely startled to walk out of the locker room to find Parson waiting for him.

He froze when he looked into those blue-green eyes that were now lit up with Parson’s smile.

“Hey there Gorgeous,” Kent said, just a little huskily. Alexei wasn’t sure who moved first, but eventually, arms wrapped around his soulmate, he found his shaking voice through his tears. “I am waiting for you for so long.”

“Shh. It’s okay. I’m not going anywhere.”


	3. Ransom/Holster

Adam had just signed with the Railers. It was a fledgling team and ECHL pay was peanuts, but it was a job and it was hockey and it meant he was going to be relatively close to his best friend. What more could he want?

The answer was supposed to be ‘nothing’ but the answer wasn’t ‘nothing.’ Sure, it was normal to be restless at his age about finding one’s soulmate (“Honey, relax. You’re not even thirty,” his mom would say), but Adam wasn’t sure that that was it. It was maddening, this thing he couldn’t put his finger on, especially when all the usual distractions weren’t working.

Ransom was saying his name and Adam looked up from his laptop to answer him. He frowned, both at the shocked look on Ransom’s face, and the fact that something was wrong. 

Well, not wrong, but different about the face that he’d spent so much of the last four years looking into. 

“Holtzy,” Ransom stuttered. “Your eyes are blue.”

“Huh.” Adam replied. Hours from now, after the two of them catch their breath, after they finally allow a few inches to come between them, Ransom will chirp him about this inarticulate response. 

Adam blinked. That was the difference. Ransom’s eyes were a rich brown, just as dark and just as delicious as the best coffee.

“Thank God,” Ransom’s voice cracked, and Adam would have uttered a similar sentiment if the two of them hadn’t immediately set out to discover just how perfectly they fit together.


	4. Dex/Nursey

It’s not the first dream he’s had about Dex’s eyes changing color. Sometimes they turn green, sometimes blue, sometimes brown or hazel. And Dex is not the first person whose eyes have shifted from grey to being full of color in Derek’s dreams, but it’s the first time Derek has felt as if something is missing, as if a piece of himself has been carved out of him.

It’s stupid and foolishly romantic, even for him, but Derek drives all the way to Maine, trying, and failing, to convince himself that it’ll be fine, whatever happens. If Dex’s eyes are still silver, well, they’ve developed into friends, and that’s good enough. If Dex’s eyes change but Dex turns away in disappointment, well….

Derek doesn’t finish that thought, just grips the steering wheel tighter and breathes.

It’s dusk by the time Derek pulls up to Dex’s house. He can see just the top of Dex’s head, bent down as he is, attending to one of his cousins. Derek is out of the car, legs trembling, before Dex looks up.

Dex’s eyes aren’t green, or blue, or brown, or hazel.

They’re amber. Of course. Derek wants to fall into them and be trapped forever.

But preferably not in this long, horrible moment in which Dex is just staring at him, face inscrutable. Derek clenches his fists, tries to breathe, opens his mouth to say something, closes it wordlessly.

And then he’s on the ground, and William J. Poindexter, straight-laced, shoulders perpetually tensed, completely lacking in chill William J. Poindexter, is placing kisses all over his lips, his cheeks, his jaw, and whispering the words that make tears come to Derek’s eyes. “I’m so glad it’s you.”


End file.
